Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton are scheduled to discuss the November ballot referendum that would grant firefighters “pay parity” with police officers at a community forum Saturday, marking the first time they will address the contentious issue on the same stage.

The hour-long forum, hosted by the Harris County Democratic Party and moderated by Houston Chronicle Editor of Opinion Lisa Falkenberg, will “dive into the implications of voting for or against Proposition B,” according to a news release.

The forum will begin at 10 a.m. at St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2019 Crawford.

The debate over Proposition B mostly has played out in media reports and on social media, without the two sides meeting face to face.

Turner has hosted several town halls in different council districts, part of a public tour that will continue through Oct. 18. Turner repeatedly has said he believes firefighters deserve a raise, but argued the city cannot afford the parity measure, which he says would cost $98 million a year and amount to a 25 percent raise for firefighters. His administration has estimated the city would be forced to lay off nearly 1,000 workers if voters approve the measure next month.

“As with his town hall meetings, Mayor Turner wants to let Houstonians know that while firefighters deserve a raise, Proposition B is not the way to do it,” Sue Davis, a consultant who is managing the political action committee to oppose Prop B, wrote in an email. “It is a deeply-flawed document full of mistakes that does not create equal pay for equal work — it does the opposite, creating unequal pay, with firefighters being paid more than police.”

The fire union has disputed Turner’s cost estimate and called the threat of layoffs a scare tactic to turn voters against the measure.

Lancton said he would comment after receiving more information about the forum, but he previously has called Turner’s raise estimates a “political talking point.” He also has argued that Proposition B does not mandate an immediate 25 percent pay raise, and signaled willingness to phase in “parity” over a number of years.

Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist, said both sides will seek to dispute the other’s claims about the cost and effect of voters approving the parity measure.

During the forum, Turner should aim to rebut firefighters’ claim that the city has enough money for parity, “but the politicians don’t want to spend it,” Jones said.

The mayor also should point out that firefighters turned down raises while police have accepted them, Jones said. Lancton has said a previous offer included unreasonable benefit cuts.

“I think (Lancton’s) best option is to cast doubt on Turner’s doomsday scenario, and to present it, not as firefighters breaking the bank at the city, but the city making choices about how it spends its money to the detriment of firefighters … essentially making the argument that the city has been balancing its budget on the back of firefighters for a decade,” Jones said.

On Wednesday, City Council is scheduled to consider a 7 percent pay raise for police officers over two years, beginning July 2019. That would add an estimated $14.5 million to the parity cost in the first year, Turner wrote in a recent memo to council members.

If Proposition B passes, Turner wrote, the corresponding increase in firefighter pay from new police raises would be $41.5 million over two years. The police raises would cost $52.7 million over the same period, according to Turner.

On Tuesday, city Controller Chris Brown estimated the parity measure would cost the city $85 million a year, about 14 percent less than Turner’s projections, but said the cost is “unsustainable.”

Early voting begins Oct. 22, a little more than two weeks after the forum.

Jasper covers City Hall, local politics and breaking news for the Houston Chronicle through the Hearst Journalism Fellowship program. He previously covered Bexar County and local politics for the San Antonio Express-News. Jasper graduated from Northwestern University in 2017 with degrees in journalism and political science. He has interned for the Tampa Bay Times, Washington Post and Fortune magazine.